Related papers: Pushing the precision limit of ground-based eclips…
High precision astrometry aims at source position determination to a very small fraction of the diffraction image size, in high SNR regime. One of the key limitations to such goal is the optical response variation of the telescope over a…
We have developed a technique for precise measurement of small magnetic fields using nonlinear magneto-optic rotation (NMOR). The technique relies on the resonant laser beam being chopped. During the on time, the atoms are optically pumped…
Compact radio sources such as pulsars and FRBs undergo scintillation in the interstellar medium (ISM) when scattered images interfere at the observer. ``Scintillometry'' refers to the range of techniques to extract astrometric information…
The image subtraction method is a powerful tool to analyze the light variations in crowded fields. This method is able to achieve a nearly optimal differential photometry, even in very dense regions. However, image subtraction is not…
We demonstrate ground-based submillimagnitude (<10^-3) photometry of widely separated bright stars using snapshot CCD imaging. We routinely achieved this photometric precision by (1) choosing nearby comparison stars of a similar magnitude…
Ground-based surveys such as the Vera C. Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time require photometric calibration that is both long-term stable and spatially uniform at the sub-per cent level, even during non-photometric…
The ultra-high contrast capability required to form images of other solar systems is arguably the highest-profile challenge in astronomy today. The current high-contrast imaging efforts all require background subtraction to separate the…
Many ground-based photometric surveys are now under way, and five of them have been successful at detecting transiting exoplanets. Nevertheless, detecting transiting planets has turned out to be much more challenging than initially…
Understanding a planet's atmosphere is a necessary condition for understanding not only the planet itself, but also its formation, structure, evolution, and habitability, This puts a premium on obtaining spectra, and developing credible…
A significant and growing portion of systematic error on a number of fundamental parameters in astrophysics and cosmology is due to uncertainties from absolute photometric and flux standards. A path toward achieving major reduction in such…
In order to study transient phenomena in the Universe, existing and forthcoming imaging surveys are covering wide areas of sky repeatedly over time, with a range of cadences, point spread functions, and depths. We describe here a framework…
Optical timing with rapid, seconds-to-minutes cadences with high photometric precision and gap-free long baselines is necessary for an unambiguous physical picture of accretion phenomena, and is only possible from space. Exoplanet-hunting…
Simulations of planetary microlensing at high magnification that were carried out on a cluster computer are presented. It was found that the perturbations due to two-thirds of all planets occur in the time interval [-0.5t_FWHM, 0.5t_ FWHM]…
We provide a preliminary estimate of the performance of reflex astrometry on Earth-like planets in the habitable zones of nearby stars. In Monte Carlo experiments, we analyze large samples of astrometric data sets with low to moderate…
The science goals for ground-based large-area surveys, such as the Dark Energy Survey, Pan-STARRS, and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, require calibration of broadband photometry that is stable in time and uniform over the sky to…
Flight height is a fundamental parameter for correcting the gamma signal produced by terrestrial radionuclides measured during airborne surveys. The frontiers of radiometric measurements with UAV require light and accurate altimeters flying…
Even though the recently discovered high-magnification event MOA-2010-BLG-311 had complete coverage over the peak, confident planet detection did not happen due to extremely weak central perturbations (fractional deviations of $\lesssim…
The Planet Hunting and Asteroseismology Explorer Spectrophotometer, PHASES, is a concept for a space-borne instrument to obtain flux calibrated spectra and measure micro-magnitude photometric variations of nearby stars. The science drivers…
Because of the recent technological advances, the key technologies needed for precision space optical astrometry are now in hand. The Microarcsecond Astrometry Probe (MAP) mission concept is designed to find 1 Earth mass planets at 1AU…
Transiting exoplanets provide detailed access to their atmospheres, as the planet's signal can be effectively separated from that of its host star. For transiting exoplanets three fundamental atmospheric measurements are possible:…